1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a printing apparatus and a multifunction peripheral, and an image-forming method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in an image forming apparatus having a plurality of functions, such as a printing apparatus and a multifunction peripheral, reduction of power consumption is desired from the viewpoint of energy saving, and therefore, a technical issue of how to control the increase of power consumption associated with the increase of additional functions has been addressed.
However, a conventional image forming apparatus is configured to perform an image forming process in a single system, so that the power consumption of the entire image forming apparatus needs to be reduced in order to save power supply to a print engine, which is the most power consuming part in the system.
Further, when the entire image forming apparatus is turned off due to power reduction, for example, a problem arises in that print processing, such as print output in progress, is aborted. In order to resolve the above-described problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-268594 discusses a method that, if one of the image forming apparatuses stops a printing process while the printing is performed dispersedly by a plurality of image forming apparatuses, any one of the other image forming apparatuses alternatively takes over the printing process, thereby outputting a print from the alternative image forming apparatus.
However, in the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-268594, there is a case that an output result cannot be obtained from a desired image forming apparatus. Further, any difference between a property of the print engine of the image forming apparatus initially scheduled for outputting and that of the alternative image forming apparatus may cause a difference in the output result, for example, a difference in the density of an image.
Meanwhile, there have been various demands for more functions to be added to an image forming apparatus such as a printing apparatus and a multifunction peripheral. Accordingly, continuous attempts are made to increase performance in hardware to enable precisely processing information related to such diverse functions implemented in recent image forming apparatuses. For example, in the most recent central processing unit (CPU), a technique that is called virtualization has been applied. Virtualization enables a plurality of operating systems (OSs) to run concurrently.